gride

English

Etymology

From a metathetic variation of gird (“to strike, smite, upbraid, scold, jibe”), from Middle English girden, gerden (“to strike, thrust, smite”, literally “smite with a rod”), from gerd, yerd (“a rod, yard”). More at yard.

Verb

gride (third-person singular simple present grides, present participle griding, simple past and past participle grided)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To pierce (something) with a weapon; to wound, to stab.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.1:

     She lightly lept out of her filed bedd, / And to her weapon ran, in minde to gride / The loathed leachour.

2. (obsolete, intransitive) To travel through something, of a weapon or sharp object.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.viii:

     His poinant speare he thrust with puissant sway / At proud Cymochles, whiles his shield was wyde, / That through his thigh the mortall steele did gryde [...].

3. To produce a grinding or scraping sound.

Anagrams

• dirge
• ridge, Ridge